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TORONTO — Here’s a bit of information that kids visiting London, England, might like to know: the skull-and-crossbones sculptures at St. Nicholas’s Church in the city’s southeastern Deptford district have inspired pirates around the world. Also, the world’s first Valentine’s Day card was sent in 1415 by a prisoner languishing in the Tower of London. And the sandwich got its name after the eponymous Lord Sandwich supposedly ate one in Covent Garden in 1762. The “fun facts” are included in Wannabee in London ... With Me, a kids’ guidebook to the city by Laura Konkel of Toronto. Konkel wrote the book in her spare time while studying for her master’s degree in international relations at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, from which she made numerous trips south to the British capital. “I think London is a fabulous city for kids to visit,” she says. “I think it can also be a bit of an overwhelming city if you don’t know where to take your kids.” Sometimes it’s a matter of knowing about attractions geared for all ages, like the London Eye ferris wheel on the River Thames. But Konkel says it also can mean discovering the kid-friendly parts of an otherwise adult-oriented attraction, such as Damien Hirst’s butterfly-themed art displayed this summer at the Tate Modern gallery. Konkel is donating all the profits from the book (published by Whoof Publishing in both e-book and paper formats) to children’s charities, including a school in Lusaka, Zambia, which she visited as a teen to build houses for Habitat for Humanity. Here are some of the London sights Konkel highlights in her book: Museums: Cutty Sark Museum, a clipper ship docked at King William Walk, Greenwich; Natural History Museum, with some of the rarest animals that ever roamed the planet; the Cartoon Museum, with cartoons from the 18th century onward. Tours: A boat cruise through historic Regent’s Canal; a bus tour pointing out locations used in the Harry Potter films. Shopping: Hamleys toy emporium. Enterta

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